A Certain Gladiator Tournament
by Digital-Mail
Summary: Takes place after Misaka Mikoto learns of Touma's memory loss and confronts him about it in the Acqua of the Back arc. Academy City has announced the first ever Academy City Gladiator Tournament, it's official purpose is to help Espers realize their true potential, but is there a far more sinister reason behind the tournament? MikotoxTouma pairing. Cover art from Toumad's tumblr
1. Chapter 1

**This story is a pain in the ass, so many names! Thank goodness for the wiki am I right? **

**I've got a bunch of chapters written already, so expect releases every Friday for at least a couple months.**

**I hope I don't have to have a talk with anyone about how surnames work in Japan.**

**And of course, I hope you enjoy this story.**

Kamijou Touma's head was nestled in his arms, which were supported by his desk. He slumbered peacefully, having been kept up half the night by a demon from the seventh circle of hell that had been summoned by some crazy magician.

Stiyl had dragged him out of school at lunch two days ago to help him track down and take out the magician and the demon. He had spent the previous day and a half running all around the city trying to find the nut job before finally confronting him on the airport runway, but not before he managed to pull off the summoning.

It sounded dangerous and terrifying but in reality it was one of Touma`s tamer adventures. The demon hadn't known about his right arm and when it tried to casually backhand Touma it had pretty much spontaneously combusted. Seeing the creature that he had worked for years to summon taken down by a teenager using only one hand sent the magician into shock and that had been that.

Except now Touma was feeling the repercussions of being awake for nearly 48 hours in a big way. Or perhaps a more accurate way of putting it would be that a very small someone was about to make him feel it in a big way.

"KAMIJOU TOUMA!" The pink-haired loli that Touma called his teacher yelled in his ear, waking him from his slumber and sitting upright with a surprised jolt. He wildly looked around to see what the matter was before seeing his fuming teacher "y-yes sensei?"

Tsukuymoi Komoe glared at him "first you skip an entire day and a half of school and then you fall asleep in my class!" She spoke haltingly, her voice laced with hurt.

Touma's fellow classmates were now glaring at him and murmuring amongst themselves "he's gonna make her cry again."

Touma swallowed, the last thing he wanted to do was make his beloved teacher cry again but he was seriously exhausted. When he had gotten home at three oh clock in the morning he hadn't even been able to fall asleep. Even if the demon had gone down fairly easily it had still been terrifying to face off against a certified denizen of hell. He had lain in his bed for the rest of the night thinking about the encounter.

Touma wondered where he had gone wrong in his life that he had ended up being able to think such crazy things seriously. Honestly, what terrible luck he had.

"Do my classes bore you?" Komoe asked him in a teary voice, causing Touma to go into a mild state of panic.

"Of course not Sensei!" Touma said while frantically trying to think of an excuse that didn't involve slaying demons "it's just that…um…I…uh…stayed up late completing the homework!" Touma finally said triumphantly, certain that he had just come up with the perfect excuse. It wasn't until he saw one of his teachers eyebrows slowly make its way up her forehead that he realized what a horrible mistake he had made.

"Is that so?" Komoe asked sarcasm plain in her voice.

Touma knew in the depths of his soul that she was about to ask him to get up and write the assignment on the chalkboard in front of the class, he just knew it. Then something amazing happened: the lunch bell rang. Touma's mouth dropped open as everyone started to file out of the classroom. Tsuchimikado Motoharu, Touma's best friend, grinned at him as he got his own lunch box out.

Komoe sighed dramatically "you're off the hook this time, but if you know what's good for you you'll stop snoozing when you should be listening!" With that Touma's teacher turned and pranced away as if nothing had happened. Touma wondered if she knew how childish she looked when she did that.

Tsuchimikado joined him at his table and began to eat "have a good night?" Touma's best friend asked smugly through a mouthful of rice.

Touma didn't register the mockery though, he was still too busy marvelling over the exchange he had had with his teacher. "I don't believe it…the bell rung before she could ask me to do the homework on the board! I…I actually had some good luck!

Touma was genuinely stunned by this phenomenon, which is why he was a little miffed when Tsuchimikado snorted with laughter. "hey, why are you laughing?" Touma asked, slightly peeved that Tsuchimikado didn't understand the importance of this occasion.

"Luck had nothing to do with it my friend." Tsuchimikado said in a matter of fact tone that shattered all of Touma's hopes and dreams for a future where he had the occasional spots of good luck.

"h-huh?" Touma said disbelievingly, unable to say anything else. Tsuchimikado elaborated "you fell asleep five minutes into class, which our revered homeroom teacher took note of immediately. She waited until she knew the bell would ring before she woke you up."

Touma was confused "eh? Why would she do that?" He had never heard of a teacher purposefully letting a kid off the hook for sleeping in class.

Tsuchimikado shrugged "I guess she assumed you must have had a good reason to skip, and that you're not the kind of kid who would just sleep in class just because they're bored. Those were probably her general thoughts anyway."

Touma was touched by the hypothetical sentiment "really?"

Tsuchimikado shrugged "sure, why not? Anyway that's not important, back to my original question: how was last night?"

Touma scowled "terrifying. Hey! Which reminds me: why weren't you there? Isn't stopping the magical crap that goes down in Academy City your job?"

Tsuchimikado smirked "I'm a spy Touma, never forget that. I could turn on you at any minute. Besides, Styl had been hunting that bastard for a while now, it was his prey. I had no place getting involved and what could lil old magic-less me do against a demon anyways?"

Touma scowled "gah, I can't believe you got a full night's sleep while I spent nearly two days hunting a demon and nearly a full night lying wide awake because of adrenaline! Repent you bastard, do my homework for me!"

Tsuchimikado finished off his meal "like hell I'll do that. You could have just told Styl no. By the way, don't you have a lunch?"

Touma protested "how could I just say no? If I hadn't gotten involved someone might have died!" Several moments after Touma said this he processed Tsuchimikado's question "l-lunch?" Touma's stomach rumbled loudly and Touma groaned in despair "such misfortune…"

Tsuchimikado snorted and handed him a few bills "go get yourself something to eat you idiot."

Touma immediately brightened "you're a pal, Tsuchimikado!" Touma called to him as he exited the classroom.

Tsuchimikado waved him away "this makes us even for last night!" Tsuchimikado smirked as he saw Touma's incredulous face. But food was food and Touma grudgingly went off in search of sustenance.

Tsuchimikado immediately took out his phone when Touma left the classroom. He was now the only one left in the class. He flipped open his phone and punched in a number quickly. It only rang once before it was picked up "yeah it's me, have you found them yet? Damn it, call me when you do." With that Tsuchimikado closed his phone again and leaned back in his chair, his eyes closed. It looked like things were about to get very interesting in Academy City.

**After School**

Touma was packing up his school gear, happy that he could finally go home and sleep when his teacher came up beside him.

"Oh, um, goodnight Komoe-Sensei." It wasn't exactly correct since the sun wasn't even close to having set but Touma was exhausted and nervous since Komoe looked cross with him. He hoped he wasn't going to get in trouble after all.

She was silent for a moment before finally saying "you've been absent for the past day and a half."

Touma broke out in a nervous sweat "ah, yes um about that.."

Komoe stopped him "I don't need to know, but in the future try to warn me okay? It's really worrisome when one of my students leaves for lunch and never comes back."

Touma felt a wave of shame; he hadn't thought of that "I'm sorry Sensei." He said miserably, hanging his head.

Komoe was silent before saying "just don't make a habit out of it." She made to back to her desk but then turned back to Touma "by the way, you probably haven't heard since you were gone when I made the announcement but The Board of Directors made a very special announcement: Academy City is holding the first ever Academy Gladiator Arena. All the schools will participate in a round robin tournament for a drastic increase in budget. For every fight a representative will have to be picked from each school. No student may participate in a fight twice in a row. Do you have any questions?"

Touma scratched his head "miss, isn't it dangerous to stage actual fights between schools? There are some seriously dangerous kids in Academy City, what I someone gets hurt or worse?"

Komoe frowned a little at the thought of a child dying but shrugged "martial arts schools have tournaments all the time. Do you know why? It's because nothing hones your skills better than applying them in real life situations."

Touma frowned "I guess so…" He wasn't entirely certain that this was a good idea but there wasn't anything he could do about it so he let it go.

Komoe continued "besides, there will be top of the line medical staff present at all times. And we'll get to watch some of the level 5's demonstrate their skills! Maybe by watching exemplary students like Misaka Mikoto you'll be able to develop your own abilities!"

Touma cringed a little but said nothing. He hadn't seen the famous railgun in a couple weeks; he had gone out of his way to avoid her since she had told him she knew he had lost his memories. The couple times they had crossed paths he had turned tail and run as fast as he could, which he felt bad about because every time it looked like she had wanted to talk to him.

He couldn't help it though; his one rule had been never to let anyone know about his memory loss and Misaka had been the last person he had expected to find out. He would have to face her eventually, and he was fully aware that he had probably made her angry that he had run away from her.

Touma groaned a little and buried his face into his arms and laid his head on the desk. Why was his life so complicated?


	2. Chapter 2

It was late afternoon and Misaka Mikoto sat on a park bench with her roommate, Shirai Kuruko and her friends Uihara Kazari and Saten Ruiko, all of them slurping frozen beverages. Mikoto had her legs crossed and one arm slung over the back of the bench as she stared speculatively up at the sky.

Kuruko leaned over "what are you thinking about Onee-Sama?" Mikoto's roommate asked, a perverted look coming to her eyes as she scooched towards her beloved Sissy.

Mikoto flicked her in the forehead once, a small jolt of electricity transferring from her fingertip to Kuruko's brow, causing Kuruko to yelp a little and jump back, she pouted.

Mikoto ignored the incident like nothing had happened "I was just thinking about the new tournament thing they announced, the 'Academy Gladiator Arena' or whatever they're calling it."

"Onee-Sama will win for sure!" Kuruko exclaimed with confidence, pumping her fist for affirmation. Uihara and Saten agreed with her immediately.

"You're super strong, there's no-one who can stand up to you!" Saten said enthusiastically, Uihara nodded vigorously, looking like she enjoyed the act of supporting someone more then she actually agreed with the sentiment.

Mikoto hummed absently in the back of her throat and thought briefly of Accelerator before pushing the image away, it was unlikely that he would be in the tournament. "We enter as a school, not as individuals." Mikoto reminded her friends but her tone was neutral and non-argumentative, indicating she wasn't worried about it.

Kuruko waved her hand dismissively "whatever! You'll be the reason our school wins then! Along with me of course!"

Mikoto smiled at Kuruko gratefully and went back to staring up at the sky. Her three friends frowned worriedly and moved closer to one another. They bowed their head together and spoke in whispers so Mikoto wouldn't hear them.

"Misaka-san has been acting kind of distant lately," Uihara said in a worried voice "has anything happened?"

Kuruko scratched her head in confusion "no, not really." Kuruko's head shot up in panic "you don't think it's a boy do you!?" Kuruko's hair seemed to gain a life of its own at the very thought. It squirmed and wriggled like eels in her panic.

Saten and Uihara quickly tried to reassure her that that wasn't the case and that 'no of course it's not a boy, she would have told us if she was involved with someone.' They could know it, but Kuruko had hit the nail on the head.

Misaka Mikoto, The Railgun of Tokiwadai Middle School and the third strongest Esper in the entirety of Academy city, was thinking about a certain hedgehog-haired idiot whose name was Kamijou Touma.

It had been two and a half weeks since she had told him she knew that he had lost his memories and now she was starting to regret it. He had played it off at the time, she could tell it bothered him but she didn't think he would avoid her like this. Several times they had met on the street but he had made hasty escapes every time. She had shrugged it off at first but it was starting to really bug her. That might sound like a childish way of describing her feelings but that's how she felt: It really got under her skin that Touma was avoiding her.

She would almost go so far as to describe it as melancholy, but she still had her pride and she refused to go into depression over some guy she honestly barely knew anything about.

Mikoto frowned, that bothered her too; the fact that she really didn't know much about him. She almost groaned out loud, why did everything about this guy frustrate her? Mikoto was brought back to reality by Saten, who as usual was a fountain of gossip.

"So did you guys hear about the Satan worshipping that supposedly went on at the airport last night?" Saten asked excitedly, as she always did when she was talking about the latest rumor.

Mikoto smiled a little "heh Saten, Satan, weird." All three of her friends looked at her with blank eyes. She frowned "oh forget it," she said crossly as she thought it had been clever.

Saten continued as if she hadn't been interrupted "apparently they found some weird ritualistic looking circles at the airport. To make it even weirder, the ground all around the circle was scorched black, like something really hot had been there!"

Uihara frowned "who would have thought that there would be Satan worship in a place like Academy City?"

Kuruko nodded "why would those nuts even come to Academy City in the first place? It's not like we're exactly a place that accepts religion with open arms."

Mikoto shrugged "maybe that's why they would come here. In a city that has lots of religion Satanists would be persecuted right? At least here they're not in danger of being attacked by some religious nut job."

Saten thought about this "that's a good point I suppose." Saten followed the statement up with a big lazy stretch, her hands reaching out to the sky and her back arched like a cats. She let out a content sigh "oh well, I guess it doesn't have anything to do with us anyways."

Uihara nodded in agreement "still, I wonder if you could pick one of them out of a crowd? Do people who worship Satan dress like normal people?"

Saten frowned "your sounding awfully bigoted there Uihara…though If I had to, I would guess they would look a lot like him."

Saten pointed towards a tall man with blood red hair. He was wearing what looked like black priest robes and he had a barcode under his right eye. He had several piercings in both his ears. A cigarette hung loosely between his lips. He wasn't paying attention thankfully so he didn't see the middle school girls gawking at him.

"ooohh!" Uihara gasped "I bet you that's one of them!"

Saten raised an eyebrow "'one of them'? You're starting to sound like an old racist man Uihara." Saten teased her gently.

Uihara puffed up her cheeks "I am not racist!" She declared in a loud voice, causing several passersby's to stop and stare at her in bewilderment, making Uihara turn scarlet. Uihara continued in a quieter voice "you know what I mean! He seems like a really suspicious guy!"

Kuruko shrugged "what, you want to make an arrest based on looks? That'll go over well I'm sure."

Uihara crossed her arms and pouted "I know that! I'm a member of Judgement too you know! Let's follow him and see what he's up to."

Kuruko frowned "I'm not sure if stalking random people on the street is much better." She said in a worried tone.

Uihara smiled optimistically "it's not stalking, its reconnaissance! Now come on, let's go before he gets away!"

` And so, mostly out of boredom, the four friends followed the strange red headed man as he walked though Academy City. He seemed to be looking for a something or someone. As time went on he got increasingly frustrated but nothing in his actions incriminated him.

As they followed him into a relatively quiet park area Kuruko leaned over to Uihara "this is pointless, we've been following him around for almost an hour and a half and he's done nothing suspicious at all! Let's just go home."

"Shh, he's making a call!" Uihara placed a finger over her lips as the redheaded man flipped open his phone. The group of four hastily hid behind the shrubbery so they could listen in on his phone call.

"Hey it's me. A minor one, I forgot where he lives. Don't yell at me I don't exactly go there often and it's a big city alright? What do you mean figure it out yourself? This is important, I need his help if this is gonna work! Don't worry about that, he may seem unreliable but that Kamijou guy can really come through in a pinch when you need him."

Mikoto sucked in a sharp breath. Did he just say Kamijou? She felt her friends look at her curiously but she paid them no mind. Her mind was racing; what were the chances that out of all the people in Academy City they follow one who had business with the guy? Who was he? And why did he need Touma's help? And most importantly: was this guy a criminal? Mikoto could easily imagine that spiky haired idiot getting caught up in something he shouldn't have.

The red haired man sighed into the phone "well whatever, I'll just go to his school tomorrow and get him then. Thanks for nothing." The red haired man hung up, grumbling to himself as he walked away.

Mikoto and her friends didn't follow him. Kuruko stood up and stretched "there, you see? Nothing incriminating there. Unless you want to follow him around for the rest of the day?"

Uihara sagged in defeat "I guess you were right. It was a little strange but nothing illegal."

Mikoto was still staring at where the red haired man had sat. Kuruko tapped her on the shoulder "Onee-Sama? Are you alright?"

Mikoto blinked a couple times before looking up at Kuruko and smiling "eh? Oh ya, I'm fine, just a little stiff from crouching is all." She stood up and stretched for emphasis.

Kuruko peered at Mikoto suspiciously "you acted weird when that guy said the name Kamijou. Could it be that you know him?" Kuruko's earlier suspicions about Mikoto having boy problems were coming back.

Mikoto broke out in a nervous sweat "what? No of course not! Hahaha…" She laughed nervously. Causing Kuruko to peer even closer at Mikoto "are you lying to me Onee-Sama?"

Mikoto winced, she was a terrible liar "oh man, look at the time! If we don't hurry back the Dorm Supervisor will be mad!"

Kuruko shuddered at the mere thought "I guess you're right. Okay lets head back." Mikoto took off at a sprint, leaving her friends behind her.

Kuruko blinked a couple times "hey, wait a minute….I can just teleport us back! We have plenty of time! Onee-Sama come back here!" Kuruko teleported after her roommate, leaving Saten and Uihara behind to wonder what had just happened.

**I would like to point out this is the day after Chapter 1….STIYL Y U NO HANDLE MAGIC THINGS BY YOURSELF!? Seriously, I don't think Touma will be amused at all. Remember to review, follow and fav!**


	3. Chapter 3

**3 Weeks Later**

Excitement was building over the Academy City Gladiator Tournament as the date of the tournament got closer and closer. Matches were set up and details were finalized. The tournament would take place over the course of one month; with matches taking place across the city in various arena's and fields. This was necessary because of the sheer amount of schools that were participating; everything from middle schools to universities had matches. Everywhere you went you could see posters advertising the event.

Touma still wasn't certain how he felt about the whole thing but everyone seemed to be excited so he had pushed his worries away, it wasn't like he would be fighting anyways, none of his teachers knew about his Imagine Breaker and they wouldn't expect a level zero to fight against Espers.

Touma found himself spending more and more time thinking about the Railgun; Misaka Mikoto. She had been displayed on several posters advertising the tournament and every time he saw her face he ended up thinking about her for the rest of the day. The fact that she knew about his memory loss was eating at him and he felt that at the rate he was going it wouldn't be long before he would just be a husk. As much as he didn't want to admit it he needed to talk to her about it.

The only problem was that he had hardwired himself to not talk about his memory loss under any circumstances. He couldn't even imagine approaching her to talk about it. Touma could have ripped his hair out in frustration, what was he supposed to do? Touma pulled his attention back to what Komoe was saying with difficulty, the last thing he needed was a detention since he was already walking on thin ice from missing a day and a half of school and then sleeping though another half of a day.

Komoe was talking about Esper trigonometric calculations that needed to be done in order to develop their abilities, Touma was certain that it must be important but it might as well have been English to him. He sighed a little into his hands; why did he have such a hard time understanding the calculations that were involved in Esper abilities? He knew that he would never develop an ability of his own and his right hand would cancel it out even if he did. Still, they were a major part of the curriculum and if he ever wanted to go to a college he would need to figure out the equations.

Touma started to try extra hard to concentrate on the lesson but since he started listening half way through and didn't hear the vital information that was required to do this type of math at the beginning of the class he didn't stand a chance at deciphering what was said. The class ended with his utter defeat and disillusionment.

**After School**

Touma packed up his school supplies, feeling depressed. On top of his worries with Misaka he had tried his best in his afternoon classes and had precious little to show for it. Now he had a homework assignment that he didn't have the knowledge to complete and a test coming up in the future that he didn't know how to prepare for. Not for the first time Touma thought how nice it would be to go to a normal high school somewhere else in the country, where you didn't have to know Esper equations to further your academic studies.

"Oi, Kamijou!" Touma turned at the sound of the familiar voice. Fukiyose Seiri was standing at the front of the class, along with several of his class mates including Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Touma's other friend, Aogami Pierce, who was the self-proclaimed Pervert King and had somehow become the class representative.

Tsuchimikado grinned and did a little half wave at him. Peirce smiled his usual carefree smile. Fukiyose however seemed irritated by the mere presence of Touma, which now that he thought about it seemed to be her normal state of being. He wondered why that was, what did she have to complain about?

He ignored the sullen thoughts and tried to greet his friends with a smile "what's up?" he asked nervously, hoping he hadn't done something to invoke Fukiyose's anger.

Fukiyose rolled her eyes "don't be so nervous, the tournament starts in less than two weeks so I thought we should decide who would be participating."

Touma frowned "do we even have any level 4's in this school? Shouldn't they be the ones participating?"

Fukiyose glowered at him "they will be, but our school only has four level 4's. Not enough to just rely on them for the whole tournament."

Touma sighed "that few?" He said out loud, and then realized what he had said. "um, I, uh I meant to say: I guess that means we'll just have to work extra hard!" He tried to put as much false enthusiasm as he could into his statement in order to keep Fukiyose from hitting him, which she had the habit of doing when he said something negative.

Fukiyose smiled "good to hear Kamijou! So you won't mind being a substitute will you?"

Touma's jaw hit the floor "eh!? Are you crazy? You want to have a level 0 participate in a combat tournament along with Espers?!"

Fukiyose shook her head "not participate, we just need enough people to make up the team and we couldn't get enough level 3's to agree. Something about not wanting to get crushed or some other bullshit excuse."

The classmates behind her smiled painfully, making Touma think that Fukiyose's method of recruitment had been to make them more scared of her then they were of fighting in the tournament.

Peirce chimed in "as class rep I of course will be participating as well."

Touma thought that was a little strange, he hadn't pegged Peirce as a fighting type. Or the type that would take his position as class rep seriously for that matter. He shrugged the thought away; he was facing the much more important issue of him being enlisted into the Academy City Gladiator Tournament.

Touma shifted uncomfortably "I really don't know if I'm comfortable doing this, I…" Touma trailed off as Fukiyose treated him to her best death glare, causing him to shrink back. "um what I meant was, I would be happy to support our school in any way that I can!"

Fukiyose smiled "I knew we could count on you, Kamijou!" She said in a confident voice just before abruptly doing a 180 by threatening him "you better not flake out on us!"

Fukiyose ruffled his hair once and left the room before Touma could protest. Some of the other students that Fukiyose had bullied into joining gave him sympathetic looks. Tsuchimikado threw an arm over Touma's shoulders consolingly "man, you really do have shitty luck," he said cheerily as Touma slowly processed what he had agreed to. When he had finally processed the information he didn`t freak out, this kind of thing had happened to him way too many times for him to be particularly surprised anymore. Touma simply hung his head in defeat "such misfortune," he said in a resigned tone and everyone else nodded in agreement. Touma left shortly after, he needed to go shopping for food or else Index would chew on his head again.

**Tokiwadai Middle School**

Misaka Mikoto, Shirai Kuruko, Kongou Mitsuko and Shokuhou Misaka were gathered in a classroom along with several other student that were high level esper's to discuss the upcoming ACGT, or Academy City Gladiator Tournament.

"Like I was saying, you should only participate as support in team matches, Shokuhou-san; since your ability isn't combat oriented you'll be the most useful that way."

Shokuhou Misaka, the other level 5 Esper in Tokiwadai middle school, shrugged and tossed her thick blonde curls over her shoulder carelessly. Her star shaped pupils sparkled "that's fine with me, I detest fighting anyways."

Mikoto had her head propped up with one hand as she stared listlessly at the wall opposite from her. She didn't see the point in all this planning: it seemed like a better idea for them just to send out whoever was best suited for each battle.

"And obviously we'll send out Onee-Sama whenever we can." Kuruko's words caused Mikoto to sit up and pay more attention.

"What are you talking about? Mikoto asked her perverted roommate.

Kuruko looked at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world "the rules say no-one can participate two battles in a row. So we can just send you out every other time and guarantee a win for us!"

Mikoto shook her head "sorry Kuruko, an organizer told me I couldn't participate in the round robin part of the tournament."

Kuruko stood up, enraged "what!? How can they not let their best fighter participate in a fighting tournament?"

Mikoto though about pointing out that she wasn't the 'strongest' but there would be no point "from my understanding they're going to set up pre-organized fights with esper's specifically chosen to make that fight as entertaining as possible. I'll probably get a few fights to fill the bleachers and attract attention but other than that I won't be participating."

Kuruko was fuming "that's not fair!"

Mikoto smirked "actually, it's completely fair."

Kuruko pouted some more "will you at least come to all our matches?"

Mikoto smiled "of course I will."

Kuruko's expression turned lecherous "and will you wear a skimpy cheerleader uniform?" Kuruko pulled said uniform out from thin air. Why she had it on her person Mikoto did not want to know.

ZAP!

Mikoto sighed, "I'm going back to my room. Whatever you guys decide will be fine." Mikoto left them to their discussions and Kuruko unconscious on the floor.

Mikoto had said that she was going back to her room, but she was feeling restless now that she had escaped from the classroom. Plus it was a warm evening so she decided she would walk around for a bit before she headed back.

The normally bustling streets of Academy City were beginning to empty slowly as the millions of students that made up most of the city's population hurried back to their dorms because of the strict curfew that was enforced on all the students.

She said strict but Mikoto had yet to have been reprimanded for staying out late, it's not like they had Anti-Skills roaming the streets at night looking for rule breakers that would seem a little too much like a prison for many of the parents that had children going to Academy City.

Oh, there were plenty of Anti-Skill out and about at night, but nowhere near enough to provide a significant barrier to moving around at night, at least not for her.

Mikoto decided that as long as she was out and about she might as well go visit her old friend: the vending machine. Yes, _that _vending machine. The one that had stolen her 10,000 yen bill from her years ago and since then she had been extracting revenge from it.

For Mikoto nothing was quite as therapeutic as kicking that vending machine as hard as she could and watching the drinks spill out of it. She briefly wondered how close she was to getting her 10,000 yen's worth from this vending machine before brushing the thought away as she picked up the five drinks that had fallen out of the machine. She knew that she would never be able to forgive this stupid machine for taking her money.

Mikoto straightened after collecting her bounty, only to nearly drop all of it in shock. Kamijou Touma was walking past holding two grocery bags and was completely unaware of Mikoto's presence.

Mikoto blinked a couple times in surprise, what were the odds that they would meet at this time of night? Now that she thought about it, they did seem to meet here a lot. She opened her mouth to call out to him but hesitated, the words sticking in her throat. She watched Touma walk away, unable to turn away but unable to do anything to stop him. Her heart was pounding; the satisfaction she had felt just moments ago was a distant memory, replaced by despair. She stood frozen in place as she watched the man she couldn't get out of her head turn the corner and disappear from her line of sight.

Mikoto crumpled onto a bench, the pounding of her heart slowing down but the sense of despair did not. _'What the hell is wrong with me?'_ She thought to herself as she clutched her drinks to her chest, more confused than she had ever been in her entire life.

**Biri-Biri…. :'(**


	4. Chapter 4

**The opening day of the ACGT**

**Tokiwadai vs. Kirigaoka**

Touma read the sign with mixed emotions.

'_Why did it have to be Tokiwadai?'_ He asked himself dejectedly _'and why did the match have to take place on my high school's field?'_

Yes, it was true; the match between Tokiwadai and Kirigaoka was taking place on Touma's high school's field for reasons that were completely beyond him. To make matters worse, Fukiyose had stated that he needed to be present for the match because she wanted her rag tag team of forced recruits to see how a real match was.

Which, as much as Touma hated to admit it, wasn't a terrible idea. None of them really knew how matches were done since they had never done this before. Even he had to admit that they should get familiar with how these fights were done before their own match. Though Touma wasn't sure why he had to be there, everyone knew he was just a fill-in that Fukiyose san had bullied into joining to make up the numbers for the team.

Aside from having to come to school on a Saturday, and aside from it being so early in the morning Index refused to get up, he wouldn't really have a problem with it if it wasn't Tokiwadai Middle School that was one of the participants. He was still uncomfortable with the idea of having to face Misaka Mikoto, who he knew would definitely be at this match, either to fight in it, or worse, to watch which would mean that she would be in the stands which meant there was a high probability of them bumping into each other.

A part of Touma's brain was telling him that he was being stupid and that not only should he not be avoiding her, he should seek her out and have this issue resolved once and for all. But the majority of him wasn't that brave, so he would continue to go out of his way to avoid her.

Touma was confused to as why one girl was concerning him so much. So what if one person knew that he had lost his memories? He didn't see her that often and when they did meet their meetings were usually short and hurried. He barely knew her and she barely knew him, they had minimal impact on each other lives.

He couldn't even remember how they had met.

That thought made his insides squirm uncomfortably. It was one that he didn't like to think about regarding any of his friends or associates, since it applied to almost all of them. There were very few people that he actually knew how he had met.

Touma tried to shake the uncomfortable thought away as he walked over to the bleachers that had been set up so people could spectate the fight. At the moment Academy City workers were erecting a metal wire net in front of the bleachers so debris didn't fly and hit any of the onlookers. Though it wouldn't do much good if Misaka misfired her railgun. Touma shuddered at the thought.

Touma saw Tsuchimikado and Pierce waving to him from the top of the bleachers. It looked like they had saved him a seat. Touma smiled and waved to show that he had seen them and began the climb to the top. Hopefully today he could just sit back and watch one of the most powerful schools in Academy City show off its power without having to deal with any drama.

**On the Opposite side of the field**

Misaka Mikoto was napping in the shade of a beach umbrella that had been set up next to the benches that were on the opposite side from the bleachers that had been set up especially for this event.

Mikoto had been up half the night in a panic because Tokiwadai's first match was at this school, the high school that her recent obsession went to. How did she know he went here? She had almost enrolled in the school a few months ago, much to her embarrassment.

It had been over a week since she had choked up trying to call out to Touma, and it had been messing with her head ever since. She couldn't count the number of times she had taken out her phone to call or text him only to shut it at the last moment.

So when she had found out their first match was taking place on the spiky-haired idiots high school field, she had spent a good minute choking on the baby carrot she had been eating and the rest of the day and most of the night worrying about it.

As a result of this Kuruko had been forced to drag her nearly unconscious form out of bed in the morning so they could be there on time. Mikoto had lasted all of five minutes after they had gotten there before she fell asleep.

Mikoto was subjected to a rude awakening when Kuruko started to stroke her sides, moving slowly up towards Mikoto`s breasts.

Kuruko was chuckling perversely as she rubbed her beloved sissy's body _"oh Onee-Sama, I see your trembling under my expert touch…wait"_ Kuruko slowly looked up. Mikoto was trembling with anger "um, hehehe, did you have a nice sleep Onee-Sama? I was just massaging your muscles since you looked like you were having a, um, bad dream?"

"KURUKO!" Mikoto screamed, her face turning tomato red as she shocked her assailant. The crowd in the bleachers oohed and ahhed at the electrical show across the field and a certain spiky haired boy gulped audibly at the confirmation that the Railgun was in fact present.

Mikoto irately blew a strand of hair away from her face as she stepped over the singed body of the redheaded pervert. She yawned and stretched. Confusing idiot aside she just couldn't seem to muster up the same kind of enthusiasm for the ACGT that she usually had for City events. The whole thing just seemed…shallow. Or at least Mikoto decided that was the closest word for how she felt about it.

She came up beside their supervising teacher; Kiyama Rikou "is this thing gonna start any time soon?" Mikoto asked through another yawn.

Rikou glanced sideways at her "we're just waiting for the other school to show up, and then we can get this show on the road." Rikou smirked "then you can go back to bed, long night?" She asked in a sly voice, causing Mikoto to blush.

"Um, yeah I guess so." Mikoto said rubbing one arm awkwardly.

The teacher's grin widened "what kept you up? Or maybe a better question would be: who kept you up?"

The hint of red in Mikoto's cheeks flared across her face "w-what do you mean by that?" She stammered out, nervously looking behind her to make sure Kuruko was still unconscious.

Rikou cackled evilly "so it's true! Our little Railgun has a boyfriend!"

The only reason that Mikoto's blush didn't expand was because she had pretty much reached the limit of how much blood could rush to her face. "That's not true!...we're not…together." She admitted quietly, her hands played with the hem of her school vest nervously.

Rikou "what guy could resist the third most powerful Esper in Academy City?' Rikou's frowned as if she had just thought of something "or is that the reason? Is he intimidated by your strength?"

"No! He definitely isn't like that…" Mikoto trailed off as she realized what she was saying and her blush, which had started to fade, came back with a vengeance "b-besides, who says I even l-like him?" Mikoto stammered and looked away "that stupid idiot brings nothing but trouble for me."

Rikou rolled her eyes and put a hand on her young pupils shoulder "alright, I get it. But if you ever want to talk about it, or anything else you know you can come find me right?"

Mikoto was silent as she stared at the ground before nodding once wit uncharacteristic meekness.

Rikou ruffled her hair fondly, then became extremely interested in something behind Mikoto "hey, perfect timing! Looks like the Kirigaoka students are here!"

In the corner of her eye, Mikoto noticed Kuruko slowly standing up. Mikoto looked over her shoulder to see a small school bus unloading a group of females, which made sense, considering Kirigaoka was an all-girls school.

Kuruko, who was still a little out of it after being shocked, mumbled incoherently and stumbled around a bit. She almost fell but Mikoto caught her, feeling guilty and thinking that she had over reacted. That is until she felt something squeeze her breast and looked down to see Kuruko grinning a scarily perverted grin.

Stepping over Kuruko's unconscious body Mikoto tried to get a closer look at their competition. A red haired girl stepped out of the bus. Mikoto inhaled sharply in surprise, she recognized her! She couldn't recall her name but she had fought against Kuruko, if she remembered correctly her ability was Move Point. An ability like hers could be seriously troubling in a one on one fight.

Mikoto was glad that Kuruko was unconscious, she wasn't sure how her roommate felt about the other girl and she didn't want them to start a brawl before the match.

The red haired girl saw her and smirked mockingly, which Mikoto ignored pointedly. She was used to ignoring worse than the half assed attempts of opponents trying to rile her up.

"Musujime Awaki"

Mikoto looked at Rikou, who was wearing a grim expression "is that her name? Kuruko and I fought her a few months ago along with…" Mikoto trailed off as she remembered that Touma had also played a role in that particular adventure. A hint of redness brushed her cheeks and she looked away.

"A-anyways, yeah I know her, she's pretty tough."

Rikou was looking at her quizzically, which Mikoto did her best to ignore. After a few moments Rikou shook her head "I swear, of all the students I've had in my career I've never met one who confused me more than you."

Musujime walked over to Mikoto as the rest of her teammates were setting up. She looked down at the unconscious form of Kuruko and raised an eyebrow "lovers spat?" Musujime said nastily, smirking at Mikoto.

Mikoto glared back "hardly," she said dismissively "go back to your team; I've got nothing to say to you."

Musujime shrugged "whatever, am I going to be facing off against you then? That ought to be fun."

_'So she's the one who is going to be Tokiwadai's opponent for the first round. Makes sense, she's not the kind of person who would let others fight for her'_ Mikoto thought to herself as she stared coolly back at the other girl. Her expressionless face was broken however, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She let out a little yelp of surprise and clapped her hand over her mouth when Musujime snickered.

Kuruko was standing upright and glaring at Musujime "Onee-Sama doesn't need to trouble herself with the likes of you, I've been wanting a rematch for a while now, this time I'll show you who is really stronger!"

_"plus, you know, I'm not allowed to fight." _Mikoto thought to herself.

Musujime got a glint in her eye that gave Mikoto the uncomfortable feeling Kuruko had just walked into a trap.

"ohh, scary. I'll look forward to making you eat those words." With that Musujime walked back to her team, all of whom had been spectating the confrontation with interest.

Mikoto looked at the singed edges of Kuruko's clothing a little guiltily "are you sure you're alright to fight?" She asked her roommate seriously.

Kuruko lit up like a light bulb "Sissy! Could it be that you're…worried about me?" Kuruko started to wriggle closer to Mikoto "fear not! I shall return to you unharmed!"

Mikoto restrained herself just barely from zapping her again "just get ready you idiot, now that you challenged her you can't back down."

Kuruko grinned, serious once again "I wasn't planning to."

Around fifth teen minutes went by, the bleachers filled up and over flowed. Mikoto estimated that maybe fifth teen hundred people had come out to see the fight. The referee stepped onto the field and announced that the fight would now commence, which prompted the antsy crowd to cheer. Mikoto was reminded of history class when they had learned about the coliseum in Rome. Kuruko stepped onto the field looking confident and ready to fight. Mikoto glanced at Musujime and felt a sinking sensation in her stomach when she saw that the other girl was sitting in a folding chair, smirking at Kuruko. Another girl stepped out onto the field and Mikoto could see Kuruko's surprise. Mikoto felt worry gnawing at her, there had to be a reason that Musujime had provoked Kuruko into this fight. Mikoto bit her lip, there was nothing she could do but hope that Kuruko could foil whatever they had planned.

The referee darted off to the side and waved a green flag, yelling "begin the match!" Signalling the start of the first match of the ACGT.


	5. Chapter 5

**Well, chap 5. That means you get to experience my complete ineptitude at writing fight scenes. HOORAY! I can't believe I fucked up Kuroko's and Misaki's names in the last chapter DX. this is the time of mid terms and exams and essays so I barely have any time to write. I have one more pre made chapter after this but after that you may not see a new chapter until….hmmm the 20****th****? We'll see.**

Kuroko sized up her opponent. She was a small, quiet looking girl with dull violet hair. She stood on her side of the field, eyes seemingly glazed over and staring right through Kuroko, as if she wasn't there. She would like to be confident, but she knew that there must be a reason that Musujime bated her into this fight. She would just have to be on guard until she figured out whatever trap had been set up for her.

For now the girl seemed to be content to let Kuroko have the first move. Silence had fallen over the field but Kuroko could tell the crowd was getting antsy; they had been expecting a big, showy battle since Tokiwadai was participating. Kuroko forced the thought out of her mind with irritation; this wasn't a spectator sport. Well….maybe it was intended as such in a way, but Kuroko refused to look on it as such, she was here to win, nothing more and nothing less.

With that in mind she swept her hand down to brush her thigh where she stored the metal spikes that were her weapons of choice. They appeared in her hand and she began to make the calculations needed to accurately hit the other girl while not actually piercing her skin, her shoelaces would make the perfect target for example. With her opponent pinned in place she could teleport in for the kill and finish her off. She completed the calculations mere moments after she began them and sent her spikes on their way to trap her opponent in place….except they didn't. The metal spikes disappeared from her hand but instead of reappearing in the other girls shoelaces they seemingly bounced off of the motionless girl, who seemed to shimmer like a mirage. Kuroko blinked in confusion _'what kind of ability is this? Some sort of shield? But how could it block my teleportation?'_

"True teleportation is impossible."

Kuroko furrowed her eyebrows "what did you say?"

Her opponent, for that is who had spoken, responded in a strange monotone voice "true teleportation is impossible; what happens when you use your ability is you break your target object into millions of incredibly small pieces, which then travel at speeds comparable to that of the speed of light before reforming perfectly in the space that you pre-determined. An extremely effective form of travel, especially since all that is needed is line of sight and a way for the molecules of the target object to get from point A to point B. However it is not unblock able."

_"what does she mean by that?" _ Kuroko wondered for a moment before she noticed that girl seemed to shimmer once again.

Kuroko didn't understand this girl's power but she could guess easily enough that she wouldn't be able to use her spikes to restrain her in any way. Which was problematic but not catastrophic. She had been training with Judgment for years and she didn't have to rely on her ability in order to take down her opponents.

She smirked "you think this means you've won? Let's see you stop this!"

Kuroko charged the shimmering girl, finally moved as Kuroko approached. The girl took one firm step forward and stabbed one hand forward, the tips of her fingers colliding with Kuroko's fist and piercing the skin. Only Kuroko's lightning fast teleportation skills saved her hand from being turned into something you could buy the grocery store meat section.

"Well? Have I stopped you yet?"

The girl's voice was still largely in the monotone; however her voice was now tainted with smugness.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kuroko gasped desperately for air as she fought off the pain that throbbed in her hand. She realize grimly that she could only fight using a single hand, as her damaged one was as good as useless right now.

The girl's mouth stretched into a small smile "my name is Chikanatsu Akane and I have the ability to shake the particles of my body. In other words I can move particles at extremely high speeds. Fast enough to block your teleportation and fast enough to rip a human apart if I hit them correctly. My comrades gave me a title….The Vibrator!"

**In the Bleachers **

Touma felt distinctly uncomfortable watching the fight going on in front of him. Perhaps it was because he had had to fight with his life on the line so many times that a fight for the sake of a fight now just seemed….wrong. He wished he could leave but Fukiyose had squashed herself in beside him and he knew that she wouldn't let him leave. She seemed to be completely enthralled in the match, unlike himself. The girl from Mikoto's school….Kuroko, he thought she was called, had rushed her opponent once but had gotten her fist screwed up for her trouble. It couldn't have been too bad though since moments later she had bizarrely started to laugh hysterically. He would have thought it was some sort of ability but her opponent looked just as confused as the rest of the crowd.

His attention was finally given an excuse to be directed elsewhere when his cellphone rang in his pocket. He breathed a sigh of relief and started to get out of his seat, he could use the noise of the cord as an excuse to leave. Fukiyose's head snapped to the side and she locked onto him with a fierce scowl.

"Just where do you think you're going?" She asked him as she went to grab his forearm to pull him back to his seat. He waved his blinking and buzzing cellphone in front of her

"Sorry, I have to take this call," he said, trying to sound as regretful as he could.

Fukiyose huffed but let him go. Touma immediately and eagerly started to make his way down the metal stairs that lined the side of the bleachers. As he went he answered the call, figuring it was better to answer it now and have trouble hearing the caller then wait until he put some distance between himself and the makeshift gladiator arena and miss the call entirely.

"Where are you?"

Touma heard this despite the noise and groaned; it was Stiyl.

"Hold on," Touma said, resigned to his fate "there's too much noise where I am."

"What's that? Too much noise? Well get somewhere quiet, I don't have all day."

Touma thought to himself that Stiyl should be a little more polite if he was going to ask for his help again, since he knew that that was the only reason he would be calling him. He now regretted giving him his cell number after their last little adventure at the airport. He blamed sleep deprivation.

He made his way to the parking lot, still in sight of the match but far enough away for him to have a conversation and be able to hear what Stiyl was saying and vice versa.

"What is it this time?" Touma figured he might as well be efficient if he was going to be dragged along on another adventure.

"Can't I just be calling to-"

"Don't even try it Stiyl, don't you think that's a little cliché? Even for you."

"Are you calling me clichéd?!"

"What do you think?"

"You goddamn punk….fine, be that way. Where are you?"

"I'm in my school's parking lot."

"Good wait there; I'm coming to get you."

Touma frowned "aren't you at least going to tell me why?"

"Terrorists."

He blinked "how very…..modern."

"Heh yep, pretty dangerous as well. I'll be there in 10."

With that the call ended and Touma put his phone back in his pocket. Having nothing better to do he awkwardly shuffled his feet for a while before sitting on the curb to await Stiyl's arrival.

**Field sidelines**

Mikoto was….tense, if that was in fact the correct word. She was concerned for Kuruko, of course she was, who wouldn't be after watching their friend be in such obvious pain? The stress was made worse since she had no idea what the other girls ability was. Then Kuruko started laughing like a maniac, which admittedly wasn't too far out of her normal range of behaviour but now they were just having a sort of stand-off that Mikoto didn't really know how to emotionally respond to. Should she be scared for her friend? Nervous? Excited?

After a few minutes of this the only thing Mikoto was feeling was boredom. Her eyes began to wander from the field and, perhaps inevitably, she almost fell out of her seat when her gaze fell on Kamijou Touma, sitting on the curb in the parking lot and looking extremely bored.

Mikoto wasn't sure if she should curse the circumstances she found herself in or be grateful to them for giving her a reasonable excuse not to go over and talk to him. Either way she couldn't in good conscience leave Kuruko's match so she could talk to a _boy_. Chances were Kuruko wouldn't forgive her either.

So with some difficulty she turned her eyes back to the field. Kuruko's opponent seemed to be trying to back Kuruko into a corner with her strange invisible force field, trying to get Kuruko out of bounds, Mikoto assumed. Kuruko was doing a good job of remaining aware of where the boundaries were and avoiding getting caught.

However despite her best efforts to remain focused on the match now that she knew he was there she couldn't help but see him out of the corner of her eye. Because of this her attention immediately snapped back to him when she saw red enter the corner of her vision.

Mikoto was shocked to see the very same man that she and her friends had followed weeks earlier standing in the parking lot and talking to Touma. Of course at such distance it was impossible her to even begin to guess at what they were saying, but it was clear that they were well acquainted with one another from their casual stances.

The red-haired man seemed impatient to leave; he motioned to Touma to stand with an air of annoyance. Touma reluctantly stood and stretched his back with an exaggeration clearly meant to annoy the red-haired man.

Despite this display of reluctance Touma displayed an equal amount of haste as the red-haired man when they departed. Whatever the reason was for them to be together it must be important.

Mikoto was ashamed to admit it, but the decision to leave the match and follow them came much easier the she would have expected it to. Nonetheless, follow them she did, saying a silent apology to Kuruko as she did so. A few took note of her departure but none made an issue of it, there was nothing binding her there after all.

And so Touma and Stiyl set off to put a stop to a sinister magical plot, while the Railgun of Academy City followed doggedly on their tracks and somewhere in the thriving metropolis a certain upside down man was enjoying the show terribly.

**FEAR THE VIBRATOR. XD**

**But seriously though, the vibration thing stops Kuroko's teleportation because I say it does, I have no idea if this would work in canon. This is Pseudo-science, I can do whatever I goddamn please. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Hope you like it, because this will be the last chapter until after exams.**

"So where exactly are these guys we're trying to find?" Touma asked as he ran beside Stiyl.

"Uh….look for a group of suspicious people." Stiyl said, his tone of voice indicating he knew just how ridiculous that order was. Still, Touma found he was unable to resist.

"Do you know just how many freaking people live in this city?" Touma demanded angrily "this is serious business, we're looking for terrorists!"

"More or less"

"…come again?" Touma asked incredulously.

"Well, they're more or less terrorists. I didn't feel like explaining the whole situation on the phone so I just went with the simplest explanation."

"um, okay?" Touma thought to himself that this must be the most pointless plot twist in history "so what's the deal then?"

"It's complicated."

"Are you kidding me!?" Touma stopped running "we're in the largest city in the world, trying to find people that we don't know the features of and that are here for a purpose you won't explain to me? Are you serious?!"

"It sounds so silly when you put it like that."

"AUGH!"

People were now looking at them and Stiyl glanced worriedly around "alright, alright, I'll explain. There should be three of them, and I don't know what they look like because all three of them have camouflage magic, they could be anyone."

"Okay, that's annoying but not very dangerous. What threat are they to Academy City?"

"It's not their personal magic that's the problem, it's the magic that they've been given."

Touma waited for him to continue. After about half a minute it became clear that Stiyl was waiting for Touma to ask him "dammit…okay, I'll bite; what magic was given to them?"

"They call it a 'bio-bomb'. Basically it's a bomb that will only destroy organic life forms. If they set it off Academy City will be known as the largest ghost town in the world."

"What the hell?! It's going to kill everyone in Academy City?" Touma was thankfully self-aware enough to not shout but his anger still came across just fine. "Why are we screwing around then? How do we find these assholes?"

"Well the one advantage we have is that they don't know that we know about them. Plus from what we know these guys are pretty green so they might not be using their camouflage magic. You know how a lot of guys from my side of thing can stand out in a crowd." At this Stiyl motioned to himself, which surprised Touma who had no idea Stiyl realized just how strange he looked.

"So…just look for people who look stupid basically."

"Was that a backhanded insult?"

"I guess a little yeah." Touma shrugged and scanned the crowded streets. "Hey Stiyl?"

Stiyl grunted, having begun his own search "what is it?"

"There's no way I could be this lucky right?"

Stiyl frowned "what are you talking about?" He turned to see Touma pointing across the street. Three men completely dressed in leather too hot for the current weather were lugging a giant metal box into an alley. All three had their heads completely shaved and had tattoos that curled and twisted around their scalps.

"wow…that was easy." Stiyl said, his expression stunned.

The duo was slowed down from following their targets because of the heavy traffic at the intersection and a particularly slow traffic light. Touma was surprised to find that when they got to the entrance of the alley he had seen the three men go down they were just in time to see them disappear around the corner, whatever was inside the box must have been heavier than he had assumed.

He and Stiyl trail them for a period of time, the fact that they were weaving in and out through the labyrinth of alleys and backstreets that riddled Academy City made it that much easier to remain undetected, though on the flip side it made it that much harder from them to keep sight of the thugs. If they hadn't been weighed down by what Touma assumed must be the bio-bomb Stiyl had told him about they would never have been able to do it.

It didn't take long to get to their destination; presently Touma and his companion rounded a corner to see the goons entering what looked like an abandoned factory. Touma and Stiyl held up outside the entrance to strategize.

"Okay, now what?" Touma asked Stiyl, who was busy lighting up another cigarette. Stiyl looked at the building; it had clearly been abandoned years ago, it was all cracked concrete and broken windows and peeling paint, the perfect place for them to set up their bomb. Creating a game plan wasn't exactly an intellectual hurtle; a much smaller, single story building had been built beside the much taller structure that their prey had gone into. From the roof of the smaller building it would be child's play to access one of the first story windows. Stiyl pointed out the window he was eyeing to Touma "think you can make it up there?"

Touma glanced to where Stiyl was pointing and rolled his eyes "I'll see what I can do," he said sarcastically "are you coming with me?"

Stiyl smirked "what are you saying? Unlike you I'm an upstanding citizen. And it's only proper that an upstanding citizen use the front door isn't it?" Touma thought that Stiyl's grin bordered on maniacal but he kept the observation to himself. No reason to start a fight when they were heading into one anyways.

**A Couple Minutes Later…**

Touma squeezed through the broken window, trying his best not to injure himself on the shattered glass. He still managed to get a cut on his arm, though it wasn't very deep. The building had indeed been a factory at some point, the ceiling was at least two stories high and there was old, rusted, forgotten machinery everywhere. Strangely enough the electricity seemed to still be working as the industrial size lights were working, illuminating the factory floor.

This would have made it nearly impossible for Touma to use any measure of stealth if not for the catwalks that that covered a good portion of the ceiling. Incidentally, they were also the reason Touma hadn't fallen two stories when he came through the window.

Touma crept along as quite as he could, the factory wasn't all that big and he could see the three men with their package standing in the middle of the room. Stiyl had told him to get as close to them as he could without being seen and Touma figured directly above them was about as close as he could ask for.

"So we brought this stupid thing here, now what?" This was one of the goons, Touma couldn't see them because of the metal girders that supported the catwalks, but that didn't stop him from hearing everything they said. The one that spoke was clearly nervous.

"Now nothing. We wait for further instructions; you know that as well as I do." This one was far more calm then his companion. "We don't get paid if we don't follow the plan."

Touma felt rage boil up inside him; how dare they talk about shit like payment? He couldn't believe that they would kill millions of people for _money_ of all things, let alone talk about it like it was just another job.

At this point he was directly above the trio and their package and waiting for whatever Stiyl had planned. He said he would know when to attack….wait, how was he supposed to attack when he was so far above them? Touma could've yelled in frustration, of all the stupid things he could do.

Touma had no time to contemplate a course of action that would correct his blunder because that was the moment Stiyl chose to make his entrance. Or to be more exact, his giant fire spirit thing made its entrance, though for the life of him he couldn't remember the freaking thing's name. Regardless, Stiyl's fire spirit blew the double doors off their hinges in a fiery inferno and approached the 3 terrorists followed closely by his master, who was looking a little too pleased with himself for Touma's liking.

"Who the fuck are you?!" The panicky thug, who had fallen off the crate he was sitting on when Stiyl had blown the door open. He pulled a compact submachine gun out of his jacket and pointed it at Stiyl's fire spirit. His two companions were both standing at point similar guns at the flaming behemoth as well.

Stiyl smiled "who indeed? I hardly think you need to know my name at this point."

The panicky one swore and started to spray the fire spirit with bullets, which went right through it of course.

"As if regular bullets could harm my servant." Stiyl said loftily. Once again Touma got the impression that he was enjoying this way more than he should be.

One of the other magician's leveled their gun at Stiyl himself "can the same be said for you, asshole?"

Stiyl didn't flinch. He stared down the barrel of the gun and said calmly "Oi Kamijou, now would be a good time.

'_Oh shit, this is gonna hurt,' _Touma thought as he dropped from the catwalk and landing on two of the thugs, stunning them. He felt a sharp pain shoot up his left leg and he knew he had at best badly sprained it. At worst it might be a fracture, but that was unlikely. Although knowing his luck….

The third goon was startled and that gave Stiyl more than enough time to close the distance and knock him to the floor with a haymaker to the jaw. All terrorists subdued, mission complete.

"What's with that flashy entrance?" Touma complained, trying to ignore the pain from his ankle.

"My entrance!? What the hell are you thinking, dropping down like you're some sort of caped crusader you moron!"

"How the hell else was I supposed to get down? There was no ladder and you surprised me! You knew how high the window was, you should have given me more time to prepare!"

"Knowing your dumb ass that wouldn't have made a difference." Stiyl said with a tone of superior indifference.

Touma tried to stand up to punch him in the face, but as soon as he put pressure on his left leg he came crashing back down, having gained only searing agony for his efforts.

"You're lucky I hurt my leg," Touma said through gritted teeth.

One of the thugs stirred and began to stir from the ground, halting their bickering.

"So what do we do with these assholes?" Touma asked.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, Kamijou Touma. We'll handle them."

Both Stiyl's and Touma's heads whipped around at the sound of this newcomers voice. Four impeccably dressed men wearing identical suits had entered the abandoned factory behind them. All of them were wearing the same exact sunglasses and Touma would have thought they were clones if not for their extremely varied and ridiculous hair styles. One of them, who was at the head of the group and looked like one who had spoken, looked like he could be your everyday business man with his neat black hair. His companions however were a completely different story. One of them had hair in a similar color to Stiyl's, except that it was gelled up into spikes that must have stood at least six inches tall. Another had shaved his head completely but had bright green sideburns. The last one had long purple hair that was bizarrely done up in curlers. None of them looked like they were used to wearing suits.

Stiyl scowled at them "who the fuck are you supposed to be?"

_Bang!_

The Business man pulled out a pistol and shot Stiyl through the leg. Stiyl screamed in pain and surprise and collapsed to the ground. Touma shouted angrily and tried to get to his feet, but he collapsed as soon as he put wait on his injured ankle.

Side Burns smirked "your arm ain't so powerful against good ol' fashioned firepower eh?"

Touma gritted his teeth, they were right, he was completely powerless against them. Business man pulled out a piece of paper and slapped it on Stiyl's back, who had been moaning an squirming on the ground to cover up the fact that he was trying to summon his fire spirit. There was some sort of symbol drawn on the paper.

"That'll keep him from using magic," Business Man said with some satisfaction. He turned to Spiky-Head "if he tries to take it off shoot him through the head."

Spiky-Head grinned like a lunatic "aye-aye Captain!" He said, giving an over the top salute before leveling a gun at Stiyl.

One by one the thugs Touma and Stiyl had followed staggered to their feet.

"Took you long enough to get here," one of them complained angrily "your twenty minutes late!"

Business Man stared at him, his face blank behind the sunglasses. One of the thugs stepped forward "alright, we've done our job, now where's our reward?"

At this a grin stretched across Business Man's face "good choice of words," he said.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

All three goons dropped to the floor, gaping holes in their heads.

This enraged Touma even further "Hey! They were on your side!" he yelled at the mysterious men in suits.

Business Man looked at him "our side?" He echoed curiously "they were just hired help, like us. I've never seen them before in my life."

Touma hated that kind of attitude, but he had to keep these assholes talking "so why does your employer want to blow up Academy City?"

All five Suits guffawed "man you really are slow aren't you?" Sideburn's said with delight "there's no bomb, it was just a trick."

"A trick?" Touma repeated "who were you trying to trick?"

Business Man smiled "Why, you of course. You've become far too great a threat . Now, goodbye Kamijou Touma." With that he levelled his pistol at Touma's head.

Touma looked past them and half smiled "heh, sucks to be you." He said, half in amusement and half with bitterness.

The Suits looked confused but a voice from behind them made it all too clear to them.

"Hey assholes." They all turned around and saw a teenage girl standing in the doorway just before they were hit with enough electricity to take out an elephant.

Misaka Mikoto stepped over the unconscious bodies of The Suits to stand in front of Touma. He had propped himself up on the box he had though was a bomb.

"Hey Biri-Biri, thanks for the save. How did find us?"

Mikoto brushed hair away from her eyes "It wasn't hard, I just followed the sound of gunfire and fighting."

Touma wanted to ask her why she had been close enough to hear all that in the first place when she should have been at his High schools filed watching her friend's fight but the look in her eyes stopped him.

Stiyl could no longer keep silent "that's all very well and good, but if you haven't noticed I have a hole in my freaking leg!"

Touma snorted "don't be a baby"

"I swear, one of these days I'm gonna polish you off myself."

"As if you could."

"Okay, that's it! Bullet or not, I'm gonna-"

"HEY!"

Mikoto stepped in between the two bickering friends. She turned to Touma, clearly angry "we need to get your friend to a hospital, and get that ankle of yours checked out." She stepped forward and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him closer. Electricity crackled around her, a physical manifestation of her mood "but after that you and I are having a little talk, do you understand? And I'm not letting you get out of it this time, no matter what."


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, I'm back. Didn't write for longer than I thought I would, but I think I've found a good pace for me, so if all goes well chapters will be coming out every Friday once again. Probably. Don't quote me on that.**

They had gotten Stiyl to the hospital okay, the bullet hadn't hit anything important and Stiyl had been busy trying to sneak a smoke, a quest that the nurses did not appreciate. Touma turned out to have a minor fracture, but a certain doctor had worked some sort of medical magic on him and he said he could barely feel it. The doctor had said that it would be healed within three weeks. Mikoto had sat quietly through the entire process, and then had caught Touma by the back of the collar as he tried to sneak away from her and dragged him out of the hospital, forcing him to hop on one foot behind her until he had begged her forgiveness, at which point she had deposited him on a park bench and sat beside him where they still sat now, completely silent. Touma would have been less uncomfortable if she had tied him to a chair in some interrogation room, if only she would say something!

Mikoto was in deep thought. She knew why she wanted to talk to him; she wanted to ask about his memory loss, she wanted to ask about his strange ability, and perhaps most importantly of all she wanted to ask who those men had been, who the red-haired man was, and why Touma had gone with him to that warehouse. She knew this is what she wanted to talk to him about, so why was it that she didn't know how to start?

"Um, Biri-Biri?" Touma said hesitantly, jolting Mikoto from her musings.

Though she was still unsure how she should start, Touma's gentle prod galvanized her into action "who else knows that you have amnesia?"

Touma winced, then answered "pretty much just you."

Mikoto nodded "why didn't you-" she stopped short as she processed his answer "wait, are you serious?"

Touma looked confused "about only you knowing? Yeah, as far as I know you're the only one who knows."

"Your parents?"

He shook his head.

"Your friends?"

He shook his head.

"_None _of them?"

He nodded.

"Did you at least see a doctor about it?"

Touma scratched his head "it's complicated…a doctor diagnosed me with amnesia, but I don't know if I fooled him into thinking I didn't have it. He seems like a pretty sharp guy."

Mikoto took a deep breath "you are the stupidest idiot I have ever met."

Touma grinned sheepishly "not the first time I've heard that."

Mikoto smacked him upside the head "this isn't something you can just laugh off you moron! You have a condition! You need help, the kind of help only a doctor can offer. This isn't the sort of thing you can just laugh off! What would make you do something so irresponsible?"

Touma grew quiet for a moment, then said "when Index thought I had lost my memory she was so sad, I didn't know who she was but I didn't want to see a little girl cry like that. It was really a spur of the moment kind of decision, but later when I thought about it; if Index, who had known me barely any time at all, was so sad that I had lost my memories how would my friends and family react? I just didn't want to make anyone sad. So I hid it."

Mikoto stared at him "do you have any idea how terrible they would feel if they knew what you had put yourself through in their name? I understand your reasoning, but by doing this you've been a million times unkinder to them than if you had been honest."

Touma buried his face in his hands "I know. Of course I know. You think I haven't thought of all that before?" He faltered "I-I just…I don't know, it….it just sort of grew into this terrible thing that I couldn't confront. Before I knew it I wasn't just hiding it for the sake of the people I care about, I was hiding it because I was scared of it." His hands shook "I _am _scared of it."

Mikoto found herself with an arm around his shoulders, trying to comfort the upset boy. "It's okay to be scared you know." She said, hoping that she could be of some help to him.

"Not when the people I care about are affected by it!" He said with conviction.

Mikoto smiled "you really are an idiot. That's when it's the most okay to be scared! That way the people you care about can help you, that's what friends and family are for you know? They're not just helpless children to be protected at all costs, they're supposed to protect and support you too, right?"

Touma looked up at her, his eyes big, wet, and unbearably adorable. She could feel her face heating up just looking at him. He smiled, but this time the smile was sad. He rested his forehead on her shoulder "I've been massive idiot, haven't I?"

Mikoto giggled, her embarrassment forgotten "you're just figuring that out now? It's okay though, you're the best kind of idiot."

Their talk continued on after some time of comfortable silence. Neither of them could have imagined conversing with each other in such an easy-going fashion. Touma told her about how he had managed to keep his amnesia from his friends and family, recalling his first meeting with his parents fondly (leaving out all the drama that had ensued at that time obviously, old habits die hard). Mikoto listened attentively; thrilled that Touma was opening up to her in this way. It was sometime before the second topic she had gone into the conversation hoping to talk about even came up.

Imagine Breaker. That's what he called it; the power to cancel any esper's ability not matter how strong it was. Not an esper power, which required calculations, something different. Sort of like an absolute rule, gravity made things fall, objects in motion tended to stay in motion and any esper ability that was touched by Touma's Imagine Breaker was cancelled out. It would level the field against almost any esper Touma might have to fight.

'_Not all of course' Mikoto_ thought to herself _'Kuruko could just teleport her spikes into him, Imagine Breaker wouldn't be able to do anything about that.' _Still, no ability was perfect, and now that she knew his secret she was confident she would be able to fight him and win.

"But I guess it doesn't do much to stop bullets, right?" Mikoto asked teasingly, being almost certain of the answer already.

Touma smiled sheepishly "not too much, no."

"What a funny ability; to be able to take on the greatest esper in the entire city but be on equal footing with a common thug with knife."

Touma frowned "Oi, oi! I wouldn't go that far! I can handle myself in a fight just fine!"

Mikoto smirked "true, if you're one thing it's a brawler. Well, actually if you're one thing it's an idiot, but brawler is a close second."

Touma sighed "so harsh…"

Mikoto's grin faded as she approached the next topic "so who were those guys in that warehouse?"

Touma shrugged "I have no clue."

Mikoto looked at him, hurt "You can trust me more than that you know, it's not like I'm-"

Touma raised his hands in defence "no, it's not like that, I seriously don't know who they were. Stiyl told me some terrorists were planting a bomb in Academy City, but when we got there and kicked their asses those weird guys in suits showed up, shot them and said that it was all a trap to get me. But they didn't tell me who they were or why they wanted to kill me."

Mikoto looked concerned "can you think of anyone who would want to kill you?"

Touma thought about it. The more he did so the more ridiculous it got until he burst out laughing; there were far too many people who could want to kill him, a ridiculous amount really. Mikoto began to get angry.

"It's not funny you idiot, what I they try to kill you again!?"

With some difficulty Touma got his mirth under control "sorry Biri-biri, it's just that you asking that made me realize that I've made way too many enemies for one person to have. It could be plenty of people honestly, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were people I didn't even know existed that wanted to kill me!"

Mikoto's expression went from angry to sympathetic "have you really led such a dangerous life?" She asked quietly.

Touma sighed "yeah, obviously I don't know about before my memory lost, but ever since I woke up it's been one ridiculous event after another. Such misfortune…" He said, the last two words slipping out of his mouth so naturally that he didn't even realize he had said them.

Mikoto looked at him for a while before speaking again "you know…I could help you."

Touma blinked and stared at her in surprise "eh?" Was all he could manage as a first response.

Before he could say anything more, Mikoto continued "I'm not saying to come find me every time something happens no matter what, I know you can look out for yourself. But today you were waiting for your friend to come for almost fifteen minutes. And you have my number. I guess what I'm saying is: if there's a situation where I can help, I don't want you to not ask for it because you think your protecting me, or that only you can bear the burden or something stupid like that."

Touma hesitated "I'm not sure I can promise to do that."

Mikoto glared "say it's for my own protection, I dare you."

Touma, who had his mouth open, closed it again, paused, and then opened it again "not so much your protection as it doesn't have anything to do with you."

Wrong answer. A tick appeared on Mikoto`s forehead and rampant sparks of electricity fizzled around her. Touma, sensing the danger, scrambled out of her swinging range as fast as he could.

"Wait! No, that came out wrong!" He said, attempting to forestall her anger "I just meant I don't want to involve anyone who doesn't need to be involved, it's my misfortune that these things happen to me, I don't want to drag my friends into my bad luck!"

Mikoto reached over as Touma realized that while he had gotten out of her immediate range, he had not gotten far enough away to prevent her from hitting him if she chose to go for it anyways. His hands came up to ward off the expected blow. What happened instead was that he felt her hand grab him by the front of his shirt. She pulled him forward until their noses were almost touching. The beginnings of tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"You really are an idiot aren't you? Haven't you been listening to a word I've said? I'm your friend; I want to stand beside you when you're in trouble!" She almost had almost not added the 'I'm your friend' part, but she stuck to the platonic argument. She continued "If I hadn't followed you, you would be lying in that warehouse with a bullet in your head."

Mikoto paused long enough that Touma came to realize she was looking for a response. He couldn't disagree with her statement, as much as he would like to be able to "I guess I would be, yeah." He said cautiously.

Mikoto looked at him for a few more moments before continuing "so how long do you think it would have taken for somebody to tell me that you were dead?"

Touma's jaw came slightly unhinged, his mouth opening just a little in astonishment, he hadn't thought of that.

Mikoto continued furiously "a couple weeks? A couple months? A year? It's a big city, would I have to wait to bump into one of your friends and have one of them say 'oh, you didn't know? Touma died last year ago in a homicide!'" Now her tears came freely "I can't bear that to happen, it's not fair. Just how much of a bastard are you, that you would let your friends bury you because you were 'protecting' them?"

Mikoto wiped furiously at her tears, afraid she had said too much. Touma had no expression on his face at all after her rant. She wondered if he resented her now. Then, as she watched, his face slowly contorted into a look of regret. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest in a tight hug.

"That's a new record I think. I've surprised myself by how much of an idiot I am twice in the same sitting!"

Mikoto didn't say anything; she stayed motionless in his arms, part savouring the moment and part desperately hoping her word had convinced him.

"I guess…" Mikoto could hear the smile in his voice "I guess there are times when I could use a little back up."

Mikoto would have kissed him then. She didn't because as he said that her phone went off. She wasn't sure if she should be grateful for it stopping her from pushing her luck, or to short circuit the thing and then crush it under foot. She answered the phone.

"Hello?" She asked, trying to keep her voice civil. Then her blood turned cold.

"Mikoto? It's your teacher, Where are you!? Kuroko is in the hospital; her opponent really did a number on her! Can you get over here?"

**Hope you enjoyed :) **


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